Two years after it was announced, the Senegal Internet Exchange Point (SENIX) is scheduled for official launch on 29 August, according to Cheikh Bakhoum, Chairman of the Board of Directors at SENIX and Director General of Senegal’s State Information Technology Agency (ADIE). Bakhoum said the exchange point would be launched in the country’s capital city of Dakar and would bring about a revolution in the country’s telecoms ecosystem. SENIX is the result of collaboration between 23 partners including the industry regulator, ISPs, telecom operators, and tech companies.

According to Bakhoum, SENIX will enable direct exchange of internet traffic between service providers as well as optimize bandwidth usage, reduce access cost currently incurred by consumers and help facilitate a digital economy. “Today, when a user of Expresso wants to exchange with that of Orange, they can do it inside Senegal thanks to this exchange point. Before, all the communications were obliged to go through the international to return to Senegal,” Bakhoum said.

Other African countries to have launched their own internet exchange points include Angola, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Liberia, Namibia, Seychelles, Mauritius and Swaziland. The rollout of internet exchange points in various parts of Africa is in line with the objectives set in July 2015 during the launch of the African Internet Exchange System (AXIS). Among others, the initiative aims to facilitate the establishment of a network of 33 national and regional Internet continent.